Flood threat averted in St. Petersburg - ministry
ST. PETERSBURG. Oct 29 (Interfax) - The threat of a flood has been averted in St. Petersburg, a source from the city emergency situations department told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The closure of dam gates averted the flood threat. The water will not climb that high," he said.
The city hydro-meteorological center forecasted that water in the Neva River estuary would exceed the normal levels by 110-140 centimeters during the day, but a flood starts when the levels are exceeded by more than 160 centimeters.
The water level rose by 75 centimeters in the Mining Institute hydro-post area as of 11 a.m. The dam gates would stay closed until 7 p.m. There is no shipping through the dam either.
The dam gates were closed due to bad weather forecasts. St. Jude's storm hammered southern areas of the UK and the Atlantic coast of continental Europe on Monday. High winds may hit the majority of regions in northwestern Russia on Tuesday.
St. Petersburg is flooded when the river waters stand at 160 centimeters above zero on the Kronstadt sea gauge. The city has had over 300 floods in its history, the largest of which occurred in 1824 when the water levels climbed to the 421-centimeter mark.
